Aurora Rain - Ship Talk #2

You Favorite Aurora

  • Aurora ES

    Votes: 2 5.6%
  • Aurora LX

    Votes: 13 36.1%
  • Aurora MR

    Votes: 5 13.9%
  • Aurora CL

    Votes: 3 8.3%
  • Aurora LN

    Votes: 25 69.4%

  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .

Black Sunder

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Aurora Rain - Ship Talk #2

"Aurora. Its very name signifies the power of an entire Squadron united in common fun. Alone they are weak, scattered, and insignificant, but together form a mighty torrent of firepower unmatched." - Accurate TEST Recruitment Information

First things first. Welcome to another edition of Ship Talk. For those new to this, don't worry, this is only the 2nd one I've done. Ship Talk is me taking the current on paper stats for a group of similar ships either by hull or role, analyzing them, and giving my own thoughts on how they compare to each other. The first Ship Talk dealt with Exploration Ships which you can find here. The 3rd edition will be 'Fighters'. More information on that can be found at the end of this Talk. To be clear the following is just my thoughts and how I see these ships as they currently are and and drawing logical conclusions based on those listed attributes.


Our Flagship in all its beauty

Right now we have a good set of ships that are flyable. We have others that are in the Hangar and/or almost ready to go while we have even more in concept and design. All of these ships have vital roles in our org's rise to the top but today we will talk about a ship that has been essential to TEST Squadron from the very beginning: The Aurora.

Currently there are 5 versions of the Aurora, each with slightly different roles but they all share several common attributes being based on the same hull which you'll see in the pictures below. Roles range from the simple starter to exploration, interdiction, mercantile and militia/patrol. The RSI Aurora is one of 3 'starter' ships alongside the Consolidated Outland Mustang and MISC Reliant and is meant for new players to start making their way in the 'verse. Let's get started shall we?


My Thoughts on the ships(Aurora ES, LX, MR, CL, and LN)

General Thoughts on Stats

First let me acknowledge again that these stats and listed equipment are all subject to change. However, unless something drastic occurs in testing I would expect these stats to still give a good general direction and capability for each ship. Below is a link to a composite picture I made with all the stats listed from the RSI site:

Full Stats Picture

Descriptions and Roles(NEW!)

ps I know the pic says Focus instead of Role but the plural of Focus(Foci) just sounds awful when read over and over.

First topic to talk about will be looking at the descriptions and roles of the Auroras with the ES(Essential) being the basic model. The ES or Essential Aurora bills itself as a starter utilitarian spacecraft with room to upgrade. This goes hand in hand with its role as a starter ship that can also do some light exploring if you were to upgrade it. The next one in line is the Aurora LX or Deluxe. The LX also bills itself as an explorer but also includes light mercantile. Though surely a bit more expensive the LX can take care of itself and could function as a good shuttle, able to get you from Point to point provided you refuel often. The 3rd Aurora is the Aurora MR or Marque. I'll admit the role being listed as interdiction confused me at first having played Eve Online where interdiction was stopping people from going to warp. Having time to think.....it still confuses me.

The 4th Variant is the CL or clipper and is a dedicated mercantile vessel. Aptly named the CL has a much larger cargo hold that a person can use to haul essential items to waiting buyers while saving up for a bigger and better ship. "Tough little ship" may describe the LN or Legionnaire the best. Equipped with a larger shield and an additional pair of weapons over the other variants the LN is built for Militia and Patrol duties and it fits this to a T. If you want to fight in a relatively cheap ship the LN may be for you.

Structural and Propulsion


Because these ships are all in the Aurora series, many attributes will be the same with minor variations so there won't be as much to talk about here as there was on the Explorer ships which were all radically different from one another. Still I will highlight differences and provide some comments on noteworthy attributes. Starting at the top in Measurements we see.....the same thing all the way across....until we get to the Aurora LN which has more mass than the other variants. This may be due to the more advanced shield along with 8 thrusters instead of 6 being present.

Moving down the list to Structural we get to cargo space. All variants have 16 freight units of cargo space except the Clipper which has 36. This makes sense due to the Clipper being described as a dedicated mercantile vessel. It sacrifices in other areas for this but makes up for it in having more than 2x the cargo of the others. From here several attributes are the same even though different named equipment is used. The ship is a single seater, max power plant of 2, and has a single engine that is rated as a TR3. This is not surprising as they are all Auroras.

Thrusters offer some more differences and we start to see why some variants are named what they are aside from the Clipper above. From left to right we see that the LX and LN have 8 TR1 thrusters while the others have 6. The LX is understandable because it is supposed to be a deluxe variation of the basic Essential Model. The Legionnaire being a Militia/Patrol ship would need additional maneuverability to survive fights against pirates or aliens while making its rounds.

Finally we come to shields. Aside from the ES and LN all the Auroras have only a class 2 shield while the ES and LN have a class 3. This makes sense. The ES is the most basic starter ship and to help new people they gave it a slightly stronger shield so they would last longer in a fight and be more forgiving of pilot error. The LN is more of a fighting ship meant for direct engagements and needs a stronger shield to compete against the greater firepower of larger ships.

Weapons


Moving down are the weapons. This is a bit more disappointing because only the LN offers any significant change to the weaponry presented. The Clipper despite saying it gives up some capability can still mount the same weapons as the others with the exception of the aforementioned LN. The only change here may be their cooling systems(not listen in specs of course). The MR or Marque mentions a more advanced cooling system than the others which may let it fire more often. Adding to my earlier confusion about the MR and its supposed role of Interdiction is it doesn't seem to offer anything over the others in terms of weaponry or maneuverability that would make it stand out on its own.

Coming to the end of the line we have the Legionnaire which has the most firepower given its role and status. It is also painted Yellow which in itself is the most powerful weapon it or any other ship can wield. The LN of course gets an additional pair of guns of Size 3. This can be difficult to balance because the guns undoubtedly draw power, cooling, and CPU cycles away from other systems so putting the biggest weapons all hard points may come with other drawbacks and lead to overheating.

Equipment


Rounding out the end of the stats is the special equipment each ship comes standard with. It isn't much. Each Aurora can be equipped with an underside Mini container while the CL gets what is called the Big Box(model a) that has increased storage capability. The LX come stock with its own dedicated jump engine making it a promising choice for a personal shuttlecraft. The CL on the other hand throws a curve ball in that it is equipped with a jump scanner in addition to its Big Box. This is an interesting choice for sure that I will get into further down.

I should note that this is only the stock equipment that you get when you first buy it. Upgrade opportunities such as jump engines will be present for most if not all ships that lack one at the beginning if you desire that kind of mobility.

The Long and Short

I apologize but these won't be as long for each ship as the Exploration ships were due to them sharing a hull and being so similar whereas the Exploration Ships were all radically different in size and capability.

Aurora ES -
The first of the listed Auroras and is also what I would consider the 'base' model. True to its description it is a utilitarian ship with room for upgrades. 'Cheap' would be a good descriptor until we get to the Mustang which is supposed to be even less expensive. If you're looking for a small ship that can take a beating you can't go wrong with the Aurora Essential. Together a couple dozen of these will be able to gang up on a smaller group of larger ships and make them think twice before blasting them into scrap.

Continued below....
 
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Black Sunder

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Aurora LX - The increased maneuverability is a nice touch for the deluxe variant. Patent leather seats really sells it but what is exceptionally nice is the stock jump engine. As I said before this makes it a good candidate to be a personal shuttlecraft when trying to get across the galaxy. Sure you won't be able to go far without having to refuel but you didn't pay for an 890 Jump either. It doesn't have the staying power of the ES or LN but it may be able to wiggle out of some situations that the other can't and perform more complex maneuvers.

Aurora MR - No....just no..... This one still confuses me to no end and if anyone has different thoughts or can explain it please speak up and reply below. The ship itself has no outstanding qualities compared to the others. Unless its named modules are somehow far better than the rest I just don't know aside from the description mentioning a better cooling system I would advise just buying one of the other Auroras. Again if you know more reply below.

Aurora Clipper - This is one to get unlike the MR. While it doesn't seem to feature much more over the other non-LN variants it can hold much more. Now I'm not sure if this is possible but if carried ordinance can explode while being carried then it may be possible to chunk a couple Retaliator Torpedoes in the Big Box and use it as a suicide craft capable of inflicting much more damage than its weapons layout would allow by crashing it. Just a theory. While it uses the same number of thrusters the CL's maneuverability may be severely compromised with the Big Box attached and loaded. Even unloaded the Box may shift the center of mass enough that it would handle much differently than one of the other Auroras. Keep this in mind when flying it. The Clipper can also be bought with a jump scanner making it useful and cheap alternative for charting jump points giving explorers more options.

Aurora LN - This is the high end craft, The Yellow Destroyer. Symbol of Might for TEST Squadron. Like the ES the LN features a class 3 shield and like the LX features 8 thrusters over the standard 6. IN addition it has the additional weapons making it a fearsome opponent against an unskilled pilot even if they are flying a 'bigger and better' ship. As stated before the LN is also equipped with the color Yellow. This singular addition makes it superior above all other Aurora models alone. The extra weapons also mean that the LN in large groups can quickly overwhelm and destroy larger multi-crew ships such as the Freelancer or Constellation. Alone they are weak and insignificant but together can form a torrent of firepower unmatched. If you are looking for a cheap but strong fighter you can't go wrong here.

What Are Your Thoughts?


It was suggested to me by Space Monkey that since I'm just going off the paper stats that I don't know how these ships handle in the game and the stats only provide so much of the picture. I don't have a computer capable of playing SC yet unfortunately. The other factor here is I'm trying to limit myself somewhat on writing these so they don't become TOO long which I may have already failed at but would surely be much longer if I had played the ships myself and gave my thoughts on how they felt to me.

Back to my request though, if any of you desire or want to, Tell me your thoughts and feelings on the Auroras. How do they fly and handle? Are they dependable or do they break easily from everything? Did I get it all wrong?

WarrenPeace has written a couple paragraphs about the Aurora's handling. Go read!
Space Monkey has given this thoughts including an interesting theory about the Aurora MR.
WarrenPeace gives yet more good info on the handling and a loadout on his Aurora.



Closing Thoughts

Several things came out of this Talk that I didn't expect and I have a much greater respect for our mascot ship. Before I started these Talks I had only glanced briefly at most of the ships stats but going back and really reading them is helping me think a few things out for the PU. Hell in Eve Online I spent a month just reading about the game mechanics before I even got into the game. I wanted to be ready. If these help in any way to prepare TEST people and advise them then I've done something really good. I don't really have much more to add here except that the Aurora will form the backbone of our fleet and it will be in on any ops we do. Being cheap I expect to see thousands of them being flown around by both NPCs and players.

Next Talk will be the "Fighters Edition". 8 Ships: Mustang Delta, Gladius, Aurora LN, 300i, 325A, F7C Hornet, F7C-M Super Hornet, Avenger. If your favorite like the Xi'an Scout or Hornet Tracker isn't on there is a reason. The listed ships are the most 'pure fighting' ships we have right now and I have to start somewhere. I apologize if one of these isn't your favorite 'fighter'. It may take a bit longer to do this one than the others because of the number of ships and I want to give careful attention to all of them. Expect an even larger Wall of Text.

I hope you guys enjoyed this one. As always I'm on the lookout for some feedback on how I did this time around so if you would leave a comment even if its just a thumbs up it would be appreciated.

With the Vanguard Sale announced tentatively for next Friday I won't be able to put it in the next Talk but expect a mini-Ship Talk that weekend if the stats are posted.

Until next time friends.
 
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Black Sunder

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This should be made into a PDF and chronicled somewhere special!
Book of Montoya, Chapter TEST, Verse AURORA.

According to the poll it appears that everyone likes the LN. I'm going to guess because it is equipped with the color Yellow which automatically makes it our ship. I forgot to mention this on the last Talk with the 315P.

My favorites out of the Auroras are the LX, CL and LN. The CL may seem an odd choice but I like the cargo capacity and jump scanner. I own an LX and
 
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WarrenPeace

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I don't know if this most recent patch has changed its handling characteristics (still downloading) but the Aurora's main problem is being slow. This won't matter quite so much in exploration and mercantile functions, but when you're flying it in combat, it shows. The turning and rolls are also a bit sluggish; basically, if you want to survive in a dogfight, you have to make the other player give up their speed advantage and utilize the Aurora's agility.

That said, it's also a sturdily built little ship that can take a beating, it has a fantastically small profile that also points all guns at the enemy, and it mounts a disproportionate loadout for its size. As mentioned, it may end up that mounting larger weapons could be costly in terms of ship resources. To me, that makes the Aurora a good candidate for physical cannons and such, since those will hopefully balance the limited engagement time with a much stronger punch while the ammo lasts.

Great job BS, I love these writeups!

PS: LX is best because leather seats.
 

Annitias

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If these continue, we could always make a Ship Talk: The first year Ebook
 

Black Sunder

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I don't know if this most recent patch has changed its handling characteristics (still downloading) but the Aurora's main problem is being slow. This won't matter quite so much in exploration and mercantile functions, but when you're flying it in combat, it shows. The turning and rolls are also a bit sluggish; basically, if you want to survive in a dogfight, you have to make the other player give up their speed advantage and utilize the Aurora's agility.

That said, it's also a sturdily built little ship that can take a beating, it has a fantastically small profile that also points all guns at the enemy, and it mounts a disproportionate loadout for its size. As mentioned, it may end up that mounting larger weapons could be costly in terms of ship resources. To me, that makes the Aurora a good candidate for physical cannons and such, since those will hopefully balance the limited engagement time with a much stronger punch while the ammo lasts.

Great job BS, I love these writeups!

PS: LX is best because leather seats.
You are awesome. Added a link to this in the main 2nd post for easy reference and I'm glad you and others like these so much.

If these continue, we could always make a Ship Talk: The first year Ebook
Ship Talk will go on as long as I can see something to write about. I do like writing these.
 

Black Sunder

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Just commenting on the poll results:

Aurora LN still at a very strong lead of 18 with the LX in 2d place with 9 followed by the MR with 5 and the CL at 4. No one loves the ES at 2 votes.

tbh I expected the LN and LX to get the most votes but expected the CL to get 3rd place because of cargo space. It may change over the coming week but probably not by much. TEST has spoken. We love our Aurora LNs.
 
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Liquor_and_ores

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Just commenting on the poll results:

Aurora LN still at a very strong lead of 18 with the LX in 2d place with 9 followed by the MR with 5 and the CL at 4. No one loves the ES at 2 votes.

tbh I expected the LN and LX to get the most votes but expected the CL to get 3rd place because of cargo space. It may change over the coming week but probably not by much. TEST has spoken. We love our Aurora LNs.
 

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I'll admit that I had to vote for them all... They're all Aurora's and even the ES fits in our fleet to blot out all the suns!
 

Space Monkey

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Awesome write-up as always. If you haven't flown, you could have fooled me.
As far as the MR is concerned, I think this was originally thought to be the Aurora fighter variant but it was so infective in Arena Commander that CIG created the LN rather than upgrade the MR to something that made sense.
Since I've used the LN almost exclusively, all I can say is that it is a great ship to learn on in the sim. It is slow and allows you to learn the different skills you need and it does pack a punch. Once you have learned though, it is rather limiting and find myself wanting to use faster ships.
@WarrenPeace makes a good point about the cannons but for long engagements, that wont work. I've been trying to find a good layout but I've experimented with Omniskys, bulldogs and badgers but so far, I've found a load-out that I'm happy with. I can fit 4 Omnisky VIs and this doesn't affect my systems but the rate of fire is slow. Since the LN wont win any races, it's really imperative that the rate of fire for the weapon be high so when I do get a shot it, it makes a significant amount of damage. I've tried 4 badgers but that affects my systems and I could not make it work with the current power plant.
Good tough little ship though. I'll be happy to start the PU with it and start from "the beginning".
 

WarrenPeace

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This is supposed to be the bare-bones starter ship. The fact that the CL is considered combat-worthy at all is kinda like me strapping a pair of .50 cals to the front of my Honda and claiming it is now a tank. The characteristics are there, but it falls short in some categories.

@Space Monkey Very true, the cannons and repeaters have definite longevity problems. On all except the LN, though, I don't see that as a huge problem. The weapons on the other Auroras are meant mostly as self-defense or deterrent weapons. The LN is probably the only one I could see being used as a dedicated attack craft in any serious sense.

double secret edit: I also have had great success with the Omnisky VI on the Aurora. In fact, I've had great success with the Omnisky VI on everything. Frankly, it stands out from all the others by a mile, and I have a feeling a nerf is inbound sooner rather than later to bring it more in line.
 
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Black Sunder

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Fun Aurora Things:
1. See how many people will fit in one.
2. Load the cargo box with as many warheads as possible.
3. Crash into a capital ship
4. Crash into a capital ship again.
5. Play chicken with a Hornet
6. Realize you are not going to turn as fast as the M50.
7. Try to combine with another Aurora forming a Superora.
8. Land on a capital ship and breach the hull.
 

Derkerter

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Fun Aurora Things:
1. See how many people will fit in one.
2. Load the cargo box with as many warheads as possible.
3. Crash into a capital ship
4. Crash into a capital ship again.
5. Play chicken with a Hornet
6. Realize you are not going to turn as fast as the M50.
7. Try to combine with another Aurora forming a Superora.
8. Land on a capital ship and breach the hull.
Load an aurora full of warheads and crash into a capital ship. Perfect!
 

WarrenPeace

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Feral Oxide

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Spending the day in AC swarm with a rental aurora ln. Learning how to blow things up.
I actually do better in it than in my 315p. (shields n weapons n missles oh my)
 
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Whittle

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Spending the day in AC swarm with a rental aurora ln. Learning how to blow things up.
I actually do better in it than in my 315p. (shields n weapons n missles oh my)
Yeah the LN's are sturdy and fun to fly. Even after flying the other ships there's just something reassuringly simple and enjoyable about the Auroras.
 

WarrenPeace

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Yeah the LN's are sturdy and fun to fly. Even after flying the other ships there's just something reassuringly simple and enjoyable about the Auroras.
Lo, and in his first post Whittle spakest the truth most pure and fundamental.
 
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